A 12 billion dollar lie

All right, here I go again with the unpopular opinions. I know, I know, the quick fix to anything is so damn tempting. The problem is that it rarely ever exists. I got into the vitamin and supplement industry because I felt like I needed to know the truth about what I’m putting into my body and I love nerding out on the details so that you don’t have to. My philosophy is simple, find ingredients with proven track records of success and package them so they are as convenient as possible. (Hence our Creatine Coffee. Combining the most studied supplement in the world with one of the most consumed beverages in the world, add in the fact that hot water helps you absorb even more of the Creatine and presto, you have a LuaVíve worthy product.)

Recently, my research has led me to the world of multi vitamins. I love the idea of them. Take a pill and make up for everything that you missed in your diet that day? Sounds perfect actually. So much so that they companies sell $12 billion dollars worth every year. After all, diet is a huge piece of the fitness puzzle. Plus you get really cool neon pee, that’s gotta be worth something right? Well, once again, the truth is a bitter pill to swallow (see what I did there?) Turns out that every single reason you would ever want to take them is null and void. John Hopkins University recently studied 450,000 people for the effects of multi vitamins and here is a direct quote from their findings:

“The researchers concluded that multivitamins don’t reduce the risk for heart disease, cancer, cognitive decline (such as memory loss and slowed-down thinking) or an early death. They also noted that in prior studies, vitamin E and beta-carotene supplements appear to be harmful, especially at high doses.”

Hang on, it gets worse.

“Pills are not a shortcut to better health and the prevention of chronic diseases,” says Larry Appel, M.D., director of the Johns Hopkins Welch Center for Prevention, Epidemiology and Clinical Research. “Other nutrition recommendations have much stronger evidence of benefits—eating a healthy diet, maintaining a healthy weight, and reducing the amount of saturated fat, trans fat, sodium and sugar you eat.”

Did you see that? Johnny Hopkins just used doctor speak to tell us all to keep our ass in the gym, eat clean and stop looking for shortcuts around hard work. Oh well, I’m sure there will be a pyramid scheme soon who will finally find the pill that cures cancer and gives you a six-pack. Until then, you can find me at the squat rack (insert peace sign emoji.)